Release (Pet Shop Boys album)

Release
Studio album by Pet Shop Boys
Released	1 April 2002
Recorded	March 2000–November 2001
Genre	Synthpop, soft rock
Length	45:00
Label	Parlophone
Producer	Pet Shop Boys Chris Zippel
Pet Shop Boys chronology
Nightlife (1999) Release (2002) Disco 3 (2003)
Singles from Release
"Home and Dry" Released: 18 March 2002 (2002-03-18) "I Get Along" Released: 15 July 2002 (2002-07-15) "London" Released: 14 October 2002 (2002-10-14)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
BBC	(Unfavourable)[2]
Robert Christgau	(B+)[3]
Drowned in Sound	(6/10)[4]
Hour	(3.5/5)[5]
NME	(4/10)[6]
Now	[7]
PlayLouder	(4/5)[8]
Rolling Stone	[9]
The Village Voice	(favourable)[10]

Release is the twelfth studio album, the eighth of entirely new music, by the English electronic music duo Pet Shop Boys. It was first released in 2002.

Contents 1 Track listing 1.1 Release 1.2 USA bonus disc 2 Chart performance 3 Personnel 4 References

After the release of their previous studio album, Nightlife, it was originally planned that they would release a greatest hits collection in the autumn of 2000 with the two new tracks "Positive Role Model" and "Somebody Else's Business".^[11] Whilst recording the new songs for the hits collection it was decided to produce a full studio album instead.

Release was the least commercially successful of all Pet Shop Boys albums to date, though still managed to sell 800,000 copies worldwide. In the UK it charted at number 7, in Germany at number 3.^[12] On its first release, a limited run of metallic effect embossed sleeves were available in a choice of four colours: grey, blue, pink or red. In the USA, this limited run also came with a bonus CD including remixes and new tracks. The artwork was designed by Greg Foley of the New York design group and magazine publishers, Visionaire, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package.

The album marked a significant departure from previous work, being apparently guitar- and piano-driven. However the album was made like their previous albums with most tracks mainly programmed on computers; however the sampled or synthesised guitars and drum sounds chosen often sound "real" and the synthesisers always present are sometimes used to sound like guitars (the solo in "Birthday boy", for instance, or the opening figure of "Home and dry"). Ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr was brought in later on in the sessions to play real electric and acoustic guitars on seven of the album's ten tracks. Apart from the track "London", recorded in Berlin with producer Chris Zippel, Pet Shop Boys produced the album themselves and then commissioned Michael Brauer (who mixed the first two albums by fellow Parlophone artists Coldplay) to mix it.

The original version of the album had eleven tracks but "I didn't get where I am today" was removed from the album before release and later became a bonus track on the 2004 single "Flamboyant". Other tracks recorded during the sessions for the album which ended up as b-sides are "Between two islands", "Searching for the face of Jesus", "Sexy Northerner" and "Always".^[11] Another track, "Time on my hands", appeared on the 2003 release, Disco 3.

The directors for all three music videos for the album's singles are photographers by trade: Wolfgang Tillmans directed "Home and dry", Bruce Weber directed "I get along" (following his previous work on the "Being boring" and "Se a vida é" videos), and Martin Parr directed "London". The Tillmans video, consisting almost entirely of footage of mice filmed at Tottenham Court Road tube station in the London Underground, is considered by some to have significantly undermined the commercial potential of the lead single, due to being deemed nearly unplayable by MTV and other music video channels.

Perhaps partly because of the modest commercial success of this album, and perhaps partly because of the habit of distancing themselves musically from their most recent work, Tennant and Lowe have since returned to their dance roots. One year after the release of Release, Pet Shop Boys released Disco 3 which included remixes of some of the songs from Release along with new material that they were working on at the time of writing/producing material for Release.

Track listing

Release

1. "Home and Dry" – 4:21
2. "I Get Along" – 5:50
3. "Birthday boy" – 6:27
4. "London" – 3:47
5. "E-mail" – 3:55
6. "The Samurai in autumn" – 4:18
7. "Love is a catastrophe" – 4:50
8. "Here" – 3:16
9. "The Night I Fell in Love" – 5:04
10. "You choose" – 3:11^[12]

USA bonus disc

1. "Home and Dry" (Ambient mix) – 5:29
2. "Sexy Northerner" – 3:40
3. "Always" – 5:06
4. "Closer to Heaven" (Slow version) – 6:30
5. "Nightlife" – 3:56
6. "Friendly Fire" (Studio version) – 3:26
7. "Break 4 Love" (UK radio mix) (with Peter Rauhofer) – 3:29
8. "Home and Dry" (Blank & Jones mix) – 6:38^[12]

CD-ROM content: "Home and Dry" (video)

Chart performance

Chart (2002)	Peak position	Total weeks
Australian Albums Chart[13]	62	1
Austrian Albums Chart[14]	15	5
Belgian Albums Chart (Wa)[15]	21	3
Danish Albums Chart[16]	9	3
Dutch Albums Chart[17]	71	2
Finnish Albums Chart[18]	22	2
French Albums Chart[19]	53	4
German Albums Chart[20]	3	13
Norwegian Albums Chart[21]	33	1
Swedish Albums Chart[22]	12	3
Swiss Albums Chart[23]	13	7
UK Albums Chart[24]	7	4
U.S. Billboard 100[25]	73	2

Personnel

• Neil Tennant – vocals, guitar, keyboards
• Chris Lowe – keyboards, drum programming, additional vocals on track 1

Guest musicians

• Pete Gleadall – programming and engineering on all tracks except 4
• Johnny Marr – guitar on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10
• Jody Linscott – percussion on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10
• Steve Walters – bass guitar on tracks 2, 3 and 9
• Chris Zippel – keyboards on track 4
• "Little Mike" – guitar and bass on track 4

References

Pet Shop Boys Chris Lowe Neil Tennant Studio albums Please Actually Introspective Behaviour Very Bilingual Nightlife Release Fundamental Yes Compilation albums Discography: The Complete Singles Collection Alternative Essential PopArt: The Hits Story: 25 Years of Hits Party Ultimate Format Remix albums Disco Disco 2 Disco 3 Disco 4 Live albums Concrete Pandemonium Extended plays Christmas Soundtracks and scores Closer to Heaven Battleship Potemkin The Most Incredible Thing Singles "West End Girls" "One More Chance" "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" "Love Comes Quickly" "Suburbia" "Paninaro" "It's a Sin" "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" "Rent" "Always on My Mind" "Heart" "Domino Dancing" "Left to My Own Devices" "It's Alright" "So Hard" "Being Boring" "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)" "Jealousy" "DJ Culture" "Was It Worth It?" "Can You Forgive Her?" "Go West" "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" "Absolutely Fabulous" "Liberation" "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" "Paninaro '95" "Before" "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)"/"To Step Aside" "Single-Bilingual" "A Red Letter Day" "Somewhere" "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More" "New York City Boy" "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" "Break 4 Love" "Home and Dry" "I Get Along" "London" "Miracles" "Flamboyant" "I'm with Stupid" "Minimal" "Numb" "She's Madonna" "Integral" "Love etc." "Did You See Me Coming?" "Beautiful People" "Love Life" "Together" Other songs "King's Cross" "The Loving Kind" "The Night I Fell in Love" "I'm Not Scared" "In Private" "Nothing Has Been Proved" "So Sorry, I Said" "Don't Drop Bombs" "Euroboy" Film, stage and television It Couldn't Happen Here Closer to Heaven Pet Shop Boys: A Life In Pop The Most Incredible Thing Notable tours and concerts MCMLXXXIX Tour Performance Tour Discovery Tour Somewhere Shows Nightlife Tour Summer Tour Uni/Release Tour Summer Tour/Fall '04 Tour Fundamental Tour Pandemonium Tour Progress Live (as special guests) Related articles Discography Spaghetti Records Reputation Results Electronic Back to Mine: Pet Shop Boys West End Girls Book